Stephen Moore’s career best 83 not out helped Lancashire get their Friends Provident Twenty20 campaign off to a flyer with a 23-run win against Durham at the Riverside on Friday night.

The 29-year-old, helped by Tom Smith’s 44 off 32 balls, hit seven fours and three sixes in a stunning 52-ball effort as the Lightning, whose captain Glen Chapple elected to bat, finished on 179-4.

Steven Croft’s off-spin accounted for three Dynamos wickets in their chase, which only amounted to 157-8. Croft finished with 3-18 from three overs.

“180 was a good score, but nothing extraordinary,” said Moore. “It was a good wicket, so the way the guys bowled was brilliant.

“To get the competition off to a winning start is great. We wanted to start strong and take momentum into the next five or six weeks.”

His effort was timely because he had been implicated in the run out of Smith as the left-hander tried to come back for two in the tenth over. He was strong over mid-wicket, adding maximums off Ian Blackwell and Mitch Claydon in the 16th and 17th overs.

But Moore shared a third wicket partnership of 33 with Smith, who had earlier added 33 for the first with Horton, and then teed off at the end of the innings with Chilton for company. They scored 60 runs off the last five overs of the innings.

Chapple and Sajid Mahmood then removed Blackwell and New Zealander Ross Taylor to put Durham on the back foot.